By Lauren Stanforth

Published 8:19 pm, Sunday, May 26, 2013

City officials hope a public hearing to be held Tuesday on a change to the City of Schenectady's charter will end a lawsuit filed by Schenectady County.

The city is proposing adding wording to its 107-year-old charter that would make it clear Schenectady County has the right to go after property owners who have not paid county taxes, "to grant Schenectady County explicit authority to enforce liens within which it has an interest," the public hearing notice states. The City Council would have to adopt the change in a separate meeting after the public hearing is held Tuesday during the council's regular bi-monthly meeting.

Mayor Gary McCarthy said the action could make a current county lawsuit against the city moot. Earlier this month, the county filed a lawsuit seeking the right to begin foreclosing on tax-delinquent properties — or to force the city to pay $1.2 million in back taxes for 2012 on the properties.

The debate goes back two years, when the city decided it did not have to continue to reimburse the county for back taxes. Previously, the county would get its back taxes in full, but the city would be out the amount that it could not collect — which for 2013 is estimated at 15 percent. The City Council amended the city charter to effectively cut the money from the county, but the county said the action was done too late in the year. As a result, the city paid the county $1 million in February 2012, depleting its rainy day funds.

Now Schenectady County acknowledges the city has the right to no longer pay the county in a lump sum for back taxes, but says that it must be allowed to try to collect such delinquencies just as the city does.

The tone of the dispute has been an odd one, with both sides insisting that the talks are "amicable." Schenectady County Democratic majority leader legislator Gary Hughes has said he thinks the lawsuit was filed just to put a timeline in place to settle the negotiations. The county also sent out a two-page press release noting all the good things the city and county have done together — before providing details about the lawsuit.

McCarthy said that he thinks the county already has the right to go after delinquent property owners, but that the charter change should make the city's position on the matter clear.

"They're taking an overly conservative position that we didn't grant them the right to do that," the mayor said.